In May of 1868 General John A Logan. Commander-in -Chief of the Union Veterans’ group known as the Grand Army of the Republic, designated May 30th as Decoration Day to remember the lives of the more than 620, soldiers killed in the recent Civil War.By 1890 every state in the Union had adopted it as an official holiday and it became the day that Americans across the country would lay flowers and decorate the graves of the war dead whose bodies laid in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.It wasn’t until WWI that the tradition was expanded to include those who were killed in all wars.
Once we became emerged into the Vietnam War, the 90th Congress enacted the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 giving us the first version of a National Holiday and moving it from the 30th of May to the last Monday of May. The Act went into effect on January 1, 1971 become what we know today as Memorial Day.
As a military family, embarking on this journey to make our fearless leader's dream a reality, we are eternally grateful that our soldier returned home. This is not the case for so many families.
So today, we honor the memory of all fallen soldiers, and their humble, selfless decision to serve and their sacrifice that continues to provide us the simple freedoms that we enjoy each day. We hope that we can each take a moment to remember that as we go about our lives exercising our freedoms, and enjoying our loved ones; this is a privilege that is at the cost of another life who never returned home.